Blog Detail

Please refer to our previous blog, i.e. Blog No. 30, in which we proposed to revisit the list of action items that the Panel of Experts from Industry & Academia needs to work on with the purpose to bring in better clarity on the scope of each action.

Please refer to our Blog No. 29, in which we have listed the consolidated action items. The first action item is to review the curriculum periodically, say once in 2 years, to get rid of “not required”, and introduce “which must be there”.

Let’s look at the journey of an Engineering Aspirant. He / she with a certain level of expertise in Physics, Chemistry, and Mathematics (with a few other subjects on languages) gets into an Engineering Institution. The subjects that he / she needs to take up at the Institution can be broadly classified into following categories – (a) Basic sciences – e.g. Physics, Chemistry, etc. (b) Basic engineering – Thermodynamics, Engineering Drawing, Workshop, etc. (c) Branch courses specific to each branch of specialization (d) Humanities – e.g. Economics, Foreign Languages, etc. At an Under-Graduate level, the Branch courses typically constitute 50% of all the courses in the Program. Subject to one pursuing higher studies, one takes a few more branch courses, along with working on projects.

When he / she takes up an “engineering job” (being conscious of a good percentage which takes up non-engineering jobs) one has to face an industry which is extremely dynamic. The gap between where one is and where one is expected to be is essentially between what one has been taught (assuming that one has learnt all that he / she has been taught) and what one is expected to know. It is like a flow situation in which a fluid flows from a “Stator” to a “Rotor”, and unless it exits from a “Stator” at an angle that is right for the “Rotor”, there is a chaos resulting in poor overall system efficiency.

In the case of Engineering Education (probably true for other domains as well), we carry forward certain legacy even without worrying over its relevance or usefulness for the life of the Aspirant. Quite naturally it takes the time space that should be devoted for all that is critical and hence absolutely required. Looking at the rate at which the industry updates itself, a time frame of 2 years is proposed for a good repeat “thorough review”.